[ExI] The multiverse is unscientific nonsense

[Adrian Tymes]

On Sun, Nov 19, 2023 at 11:34 AM Stuart LaForge via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> On 2023-11-14 19:27, Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat wrote:
> > On Tue, Nov 14, 2023 at 6:59 PM Stuart LaForge via extropy-chat
> > <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> >> There is no experimental evidence for string theory, but there is
> >> pretty
> >> good experimental evidence for Everett's multiverse. One
> >> particularly
> >> interesting experiment is the Elitzur-Vaidman Bomb Detector where
> >> one
> >> can distinguish live bombs from duds in this universe, by blowing
> >> them
> >> up in another universe. This is a process called Interaction-free
> >> measurement where you are measuring a system without disrupting it
> >> in
> >> this universe, by disrupting it in another universe. In Copenhagen
> >> or
> >> Q-Bism interpretations of quantum mechanics, it leads to paradoxes
> >> thinking about how an event that never happened could give you
> >> information about an object in the real world.
> >>
> >> Here is a good paper on the topic
> >> https://arxiv.org/pdf/0804.0523.pdf
> > The paper fails to describe detection in a different universe, only in
> > a contained subset of this universe.  It gives no evidence for the
> > existence of other universes.
>
> It is not direct evidence, it is inferential evidence.


It fails to even be that much.


> Anytime a
> particle interferes with itself, it has to interact with "something".
> That something must be an alternate version of itself in another
> universe. Otherwise, the particle has to be smart enough to do some
> pretty crazy math to know what it is supposed do when observed.
>

Many processes in the real universe can be described as the result of
"pretty crazy math" when the objects themselves do no computation as we or
as computers do it.  Objects in freefall accelerate at very predictable
rates regardless of the presence of computers.  Wings generate lift using
formulas that need very complex math to model.  And, yes, particles and
photons - far too small to be computers - diffract and otherwise perform
quantum phenomena according to equations that take us quite a bit of
training to understand, let alone to be able to compute.

So, the hypothesis that it must be interacting with an alternate universe
version of itself is not supported by the evidence.  While it is true that
such interaction could be performed, there is no evidence ruling out more
ordinary possibilities here - and it is possible that we could always be
interacting with other universes in ways we in this universe can never
measure or prove.  (I have read stories assuming that dreams are our
perception of alternative universes, for instance.)
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